A jury convicted a Stroud Township man of threatening his neighbors, using racial slurs, brandishing a shotgun and then precipitating a standoff in Penn Estates in May 2012.

CAMILO H. SMITH

Charged with threatening neighbors with a firearm and precipitating a standoff with police, a Stroud Township man was convicted Thursday of ethnic intimidation and making terroristic threats.

Kevin Daniel Fahey, 47, of Penn Estates will be sentenced May 14. The jury deliberated for just over an hour after a one-day trial in Monroe County Court.

Adel Mikhaeil was the first witness called to the stand by Assistant District Attorney Kelly Lombardo. Mikhaeil was the victim of a verbal assault that included ethnic slurs shouted at him by Fahey in the early evening hours of June 2, 2012. Mikhaeil, 48, had stopped his vehicle to say hello to his neighbor James Smith and Smith’s 7-year-old son, who were also victims.

Mikhaeil, who was born in Egypt, said Fahey called him a derogatory term for a Puerto Rican. The former New Jersey bounty hunter said he tried to calm Fahey, who pulled off in his car and returned two more times, threatening to physically harm him.

Defense attorney Robin Spishock attempted to expose inconsistencies in Mikhaeil’s recollection of the attack, which occurred on Lakeside Drive. On cross examination Spishock asked him why he didn’t mention Fahey made death threats in his written statement to police. She then brought up an incident from his past work as a bounty hunter, which Judge Jennifer Sibum threw out of court.

“I remember him yelling and screaming and cursing at us,” an emotional James Smith testified in court. Smith was almost brought to tears during his testimony. An after-work bike ride with his 7-year-old son turned into a frightening confrontation with a neighbor, he said. “I was scared, mostly fearful for my son.”

Smith said he approached the belligerent Fahey and asked him to leave the group alone. Fahey drove off to his residence and moments later began walking down his driveway with what appeared to be either a bat, or a firearm. “The first thing I had to do was protect my boy,” said Smith, who sent his son home in Mikhaeil’s vehicle.

According to Mikhaeil, Fahey was carrying a shotgun. Smith said he thought he saw a bat. Thinking it was a gun, Penn Estates security sergeant Joseph Conrad, who also testified, made a call to Stroud Area Regional Police. That’s when authorities thought they were dealing with a gunman holed up inside his home.

Detective Richard Wolbert of the Stroud Area Regional Police testified that he was informed of an armed resident who had threatened neighbors sometime around 6 p.m. that day. Wolbert said he established a safety perimeter in the area, and special response team was called with a hostage negotiator and snipers.

Police attempted to reach Fahey by telephone and loudspeaker in front of his house. Fahey didn’t come out of his home until 1 a.m. when he was taken into custody. Police found .22 caliber handgun ammunition and a pellet rifle inside Fahey’s home.

Wolbert testified that after being told of the charges against him, Fahey said, “Whatever that woman said, it’s not true.”

Wolbert said that when he told him it was the confrontation on Lakeside Drive, Fahey said he had no recollection of the incident.

Fahey was convicted on four counts, including making terroristic threats to both men, and the 7-year-old boy. He was also charged with ethnic intimidation for yelling racial slurs at Mikhaeil.

This isn’t the first time Fahey has run afoul of the law. He was sentenced to four to 12 months in Monroe County Correctional Facility for carrying a gun without a license, followed by a year’s probation for reckless endangerment.